A planner can hold every credential on the wall and still be paid to steer you toward a particular product. Three things tell you more than any pitch, and you can check all of them before you hire anyone.
Most guides to choosing a financial planner stop at qualifications. They tell you to confirm the letters after someone’s name and to ask a few interview questions. That’s useful, but it misses the part that decides whether the advice you get is built around you or around something the planner needs to sell. Credentials tell you whether a planner is competent. Structure tells you whose interests sit first when the two don’t line up.
The good news is that structure is checkable before you sign anything. You don’t need to be an expert to read it. You need to know which parts to look at and what a healthy answer looks like.
The signals that reveal whose interests come first
#1 – Who holds the licence
Every planner operates under a licence, and the licence is where accountability actually lives. In the United States, an adviser is registered with the SEC or a state regulator as an investment adviser, or works under a broker-dealer. In Australia, advice is given under an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL). In the UK, the firm is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. The label changes by country. The question doesn’t: who is the licence holder, and are they the same people giving you advice?
This matters because a licence held by a large institution often comes with an approved product list. The planner can recommend what’s on the list. The narrower that list, and the closer its owner sits to a product manufacturer, the more the advice bends toward house products. Ask for the licence number and look it up on the regulator’s public register. It’s free, and it tells you who the planner answers to.
#2 – Who owns the firm
Ownership and licensing quietly decide whose interests come first: a firm that holds its own licence and is run by its principal advisers has no product manufacturer above it steering what gets recommended. Solace financial planners, a Brisbane firm that has held its own Australian Financial Services Licence since 2013, is one example of an advice practice built on this owner-accountable structure. Its advisers are also the firm’s owners and hold the Certified Financial Planner designation, and the practice quotes a fixed upfront fee before any work begins rather than taking entry or exit commissions on the products it recommends.
This structure is the lesson, whatever the firm is called. When the people advising you also own the business and hold the licence, no separate parent’s sales targets shape the recommendation. When a bank, insurer, fund manager, or platform provider sits above the advice, the incentive runs the other way, however honest the individual planner is. Ask who owns the firm, and whether any part of the business is owned by a company that also makes the products you’ll be sold.
#3 – How the planner is paid
Fees are where alignment becomes concrete. Broadly, planners are paid in one of a few ways: a flat fee for the work, a percentage of the assets they manage for you, an hourly rate, or commissions paid by product providers. Commissions are the model to watch, because they pay the planner more when you buy a particular product, not when you get the right outcome. Several jurisdictions have restricted or banned them on investment and retirement products for exactly that reason, though they survive in areas like life insurance.
A fixed fee quoted upfront, before any work starts, removes most of the guesswork. You know what the advice costs, and you can see that the planner earns the same regardless of which product they recommend. A percentage-of-assets model aligns the planner with growing your portfolio, but be clear on what the percentage covers and whether it climbs as your balance does. Ask for the total cost in dollars for the first year and every year after, in writing.
Questions every prospective client should ask
Before you hire anyone, put four questions on the table and expect plain answers:
- Who holds your licence, and can I see the registration number?
- Who owns this firm, and does any owner also manufacture financial products?
- Exactly how are you paid, in dollars, this year and ongoing?
- Do you receive any commission or third-party benefit if I follow your advice?
A planner whose structure is genuinely aligned will answer these quickly and without discomfort. Vagueness, or a redirect to how much you’ll earn instead of how they’re paid, is itself an answer.
Why structure beats reputation
Awards and a polished website tell you a firm markets well. They don’t tell you who the firm answers to. A planner can be personally ethical and still work inside a structure that rewards selling, which is why the checks above look past the individual to the arrangement they operate in. Reputation is a lagging signal. Structure is one you can verify today, from public registers and a written fee disclosure, before a single dollar moves.
Choosing a planner is a structural decision
The competence question and the alignment question are different, and both matter. Credentials answer the first. Licensing and ownership answer the second, and so does the way the planner is paid. Those are the checks most people skip, because they feel harder to ask about. They aren’t. Each one has a public record or a written answer behind it. Work through all of them before you hire, and you’ll know whose interests come first long before you have to trust the advice.